Friedman Reverts to Suck-Up Mode

The World's Worst Media Columnist, Jon Friedman of Marketwatch, has been sucking up to Newsweek for his past two columns. Nothing remarkable here, except that Friedman's initial reaction to "Korangate" was a nutty column comparing Newsweek to Jayson Blair, whose stupidity I noted at the time.

"The turning point occurred when the media and the public 'went from attack-mode to defend-mode' and began to give Newsweek the benefit of the doubt," says Friedman. He ought to know. His columns have been all over the lot.

Friedman hauls out all the usual cliches, and also as usual inserts his dopey self into the column wherever possible. As in this:

[Newsweek publisher Greg] Osberg will never forget the day all hell broke loose. "I was on a treadmill in Tokyo and saw (Newsweek's managing editor, Jon) Meacham being interviewed on the BBC. I jumped off the treadmill and said 'oh, my goodness, this is serious.'" (Call me a cynical journalist, but I have a suspicion he said something slightly stronger -- but this is Osberg's story and he's sticking to it)

"Cynical"? No. "Awful"? Yes.